And so, we get to the late-90s reprint of an early-70s Japanese series! (Fury says Yu appeared in Spider-verse). Does anyone know if the contemporaneously-reprinted X-Men: The Manga (an X-Men: The Animated Series adaptation from the early-90s) officially takes place in the same universe as far as Marvel are concerned? [Also, there was a Hulk manga, which originates from the early-70s like this SM manga, that I found scans of (in Japanese!) online. Same question.]

This should not be confused with the Mangaverse, Spider-Man J, etc. And owing to the existence of the "Mangaverse" (an entirely separate thing, by American creators and merely "inspired by" manga), I strongly advise against tacking on a -VERSE. It'd just confuse.

As for the series (well, the translated section) falls into three distinct phases:
1) #1-15, a fairly mediocre translation of Spider-Man tropes directly to Japan.
2) #16-21, abysmal attempts at "relevant" stories.
3) #22-30*, after the writer change, the series starts executing what it was going for in phase 2 MUCH better. This is the only segment that can be called actually good.

*#31 is from this period, but as an orphaned chunk of a larger story it's hard to judge.

The origin of Spider-Man! Yu Komori is doing an after-hours experiment with radiation in school, spider gets zapped and bites him.

Next day, he gets sick in class, but it's his powers emerging. He spends time thereafter making webshooters and web fluid.

He then gets a letter from his penpal, saying she's coming to Tokyo. On his way to the train station, he encounters the fallout from Electro robbing a bank.

Afterward, he meets Rumi, and she says she wants help finding her brother.

Notes:
The Aunt May analogue never gets a name in the translated issues. Some online sources (English Wikipedia) list her as "Mei" (presumably Mei Komori), but it isn't clear where that came from and a machine translation of the Japanese Wikipedia article lists her as simply "Aunt" and appears to say she doesn't get a name.

They go searching for her brother through various places he'd been, where his reputation gets worse every time, culminating in him having stolen "6 months profits" from a jazz club. Rumi's mother's been hospitalised, and she needs $10k to pay the bills. It's what she wanted to tell him.

A week later, Electro's been running riot. The Joho Newspaper Co. (Bugle analogue) puts up a $100k reward for the attention, not expecting anyone to claim it.

A few days later, Yu's suited up and picks a fight with Electro.

Notes:
Nope, the JJJ-alike and his slimy assistant never get named either. Lots of moderately significant characters don't get names, actually...

Electro goes back to his hideout with his accomplice, who says they should stop it, and he'll turn off Electro's powers. The accomplice is beginning to get guilty over how many people have died, despite it being his idea, and Electro isn't prepared to give up until he's the richest man in Japan.

Yu's admitting defeat to Rumi, when Electro runs by. During the ensuing fight, the accomplice is zapped and killed by Electro, meaning he can never touch anyone without electrocuting them. Naturally, he takes this out on Yu, who ultimately punches him hard into a wall. It's Rumi's brother, who started his descent because he crippled a child in a car accident and had to pay $50k in installments. The kid's dad was the accomplice who turned him into Electro. He then dies.

Rumi goes home, having been given the money by Yu. She doens't want to talk about the "unfortunate person". Yu isn't terribly happy.

A guy is thrown over a cliff, into an area full of giant reptiles. He survives, and flies back to Japan. Unfortunately, shortly after he gets home, a giant lizard-monster in a dressing gown murders his wife. Later, at Koda Pharmaceuticals, they're having a congratulatory meeting over a new medicine that's about to go on sale. Until a lizard monster in a lab coat levels the factory.

At Otowa High School in Tokyo, Yu's looking at a newspaper in class and flashing back to Rumi's goodbye, and so paying no attention to class and embarrasses himself. Afterward, his friend Araki - the son of the guy who invented the medicine - talks him into heading out on their mopeds.

Notes:
While the recap pages and online sources tend to refer to the good doctor as "the Lizard", the (translated) script calls him "the Lizard-Man".
His name is name is translated (transliterated?) as Dr. Inmaru" in this issue and next, but "Dr. Inumaru" in #6. Judging from google searches, this is fixing a mistake.

Araki's getting drunk and smoking, and trying to drag Yu along with him until Araki's dad shows up and whacks him in the face.

Yu has a bad dream about Electro, and decides never to use his powers again.

After the lizard monster destroys another factory, and they begin to suspect he's an employee, Araki & Yu go to meet Dr. Inumaru, Yu's old teacher. After the visit, the Lizard-Man kidnaps Araki, and Yu gets guilty.

Araki's father gets a call telling him to bring his notes for destruction if he wants to see his son again. Spider-Man appears to talk him into trying to save his son, if he can tag along.

*gasp* Dr. Inumaru is the Lizard-Man! Apparently, the new medicine (which slows the aging process) was found by him and Araki's father while searching the South Pacific Islands, used by a tribe. Then Araki's father shoved him off a cliff so he could take the solo credit.

By being thrown into a pit of gigantic lizards, however, Inumaru eventually turned INTO the Lizard-Man whenever he got stressed. He tries to throw Araki to crocodiles, Spider-Man saves him, he ends up unconscious in the croc-pit, guess what happens.

Notes:
This issue, the Lizard-Man's name is translated (transliterated?) as Dr. Inumaru. Judging from google searches, this is fixing a mistake.

Yu's driving around on bikes with his mates when Araki and his girlfriend get hit'n'run. Yu tries to flag down someone to help and almost gets whacked himself. He takes Yoko (the girlfriend) to a hospital, nearly getting flattened multiple times on the way and finds out it's because the Kangaroo stole a capsule of lethal bacterial thinking it was money, and everyone's panicking to get out of the city if they can.

Yu falls asleep and has a nightmare. Waking up at 11pm, and finding Rumi isn't back yet, he decides to go to the railway station and wait for the last train, throwing his worried aunt back and ranting at her in the process.

Fortunately, Rumi's on the last train. Unfortunately, he "bumps" into a gangster in the process and cops a beating, not wanting to be "like that fake Spider-Man", until the police belatedly show up.

Turns out, Rumi lost her photo album, with pictures of her mother & brother, and had spent the day retracing her steps in a panic. She finally got it, and has it in her handbag... until the Spider-Man imposter nicks the bag.

This finally spurs Yu into action, and he goes looking for him in (a presumably new) costume, but he's vanished. Then a new hero called Mysterio shows up, promising to bring Spider-Man down. The inevitable fight goes badly for Yu, and he's tossed off a bridge into the river.

Yu's taken a job as a stuntman to try and make the $5k, but when he goes to the hospital with it, he's told the kid's sight was never in danger, the doctor was trying to give himself up. Oh, and "Spider-Man" committed another crime for the dosh.

Turns out, the senior stuntman is Mysterio. Yu beats him this time, but decides to quit again with his rep completely ruined.
________________

He takes the beating, and is left in the b ack of a club. Turns out, Rumi's now working there ("having no means of support, I have no choice but to work in this kind of place"), but he's rapidl y thrown out as underage after discovering that.

When the Kendo team make their move, he fights back properly this time. Araki sees this/hears what they said about the girl, and promises to tell the police, but wants to know how he's so strong. Yu decides not to say.
_________________

In a bar, they find the guy, and a cop comes in and gets shot by him. He takes them hostage and soon after Araki's shot in the arm, the rest are on a hijacked plane. Yu's reluctant to do anything about the guy, even after someone else gets shot.

With the controls shot out, they're going to crash. A pal is shot, Yu still does nothing. A doctor gets shot, he finally acts. Turns out he's bulletproof. He finally acts to pull the aerilon back into alignment

Yu's spider-sense goes crazy, and he sees a woman who apparently sucks all heat and life out of the square... then suddenly it's like it never happened, except for some dead flowers and a few small ice crystals. He becomes obsessed by her, skipping school to try and find her.

People die around the "Winter Woman". Yu's still obsessed by her. Trying the newspaper office, he finds a woman who knows about her, because her boyfriend - Hiroshi Takao, a reporter - became obsessed like Yu and vanished - she was one of "dozens of women" used and abused by a man callled Shoichi Yamano.

The woman from the newspaper asks Yu to get Takao to come back to her if he sees him.

Meanwhile, the "Winter Woman" despairs silently - everyone dies around her. Later, as Yu manages to home in on her with his spider-sense, a drunk makes a pass at her, and ends up throwing himself under a train. Seeing this, she runs away screaming. Yu runs after her, but is stopped by a hollow-looking Takao, who tells him she despaired so much it became an out-of-control "superpower", who transmits "misery, misfortune and ultimately death" to everyone she meets whether she wants it or not. Takao brandishes a knife and tells Yu she has to die ("I can't stand by and watch her commit any more crimes. I'd do anything to save her from her personal hell...she shouldn't have to go on living like this.")

Later, Yu finds Takao, who's slit his own throat. He gets into his costume and takes the knife. Unsure what to do, thinking her a kindred spirit, he finds her looking over a bridge. She looks him in the eye for a moment... then throws herself off, down into the deep valley, with Yu's fingers stuck over his webshooter button the whole time.

-FB (photo)
Takao, Hiroshi

________________

Now, the ninth arc had only the first chunk translated - and out-of-sequence to boot! The tenth arc (which killed Rumi, as referenced in #25) was completely skipped.

[Okay, I say eleventh - apparently, it was the twelfth in the original Japanese publication order, but eleventh chronologically. Hardly matters since the chronologically-twelfth arc was never translated, and nor was the thirteenth and final.]

In the middle of a blood shortage after a train accident, Yu gives a blood transfusion to a young man, Mitsuo Kitano. Two days later, his sister Yukiko thanks him, and says he wants to see Yu (who's struck by her resemblance to the late Rumi). Yu falls in with him, but turns out to be a user of women, one of whom has some thugs come and beat him up.

Notes:
Yu thinks that Rumi "passed away". Again, this happened in an arc skipped for translation, when she was hit by a car.

Yu saves Mitsuo, but Mitsuo takes the chance to give the girl a black eye, and Yu has to step in to stop him completely smashing her face in. Afterward, Mitsuo tells him you're either a user or used, and he'd prefer to be the user. He also says his sister's become a prostitute to make money for his tuition. Afterward, he starts ranting at his sister, then has a fever and rips a phone book in half...

Yukiko comes to see Yu, telling him Mitsuo's getting in fights all the time, enjoying it. She asks Yu to have a word with him, try to talk him down. When he catches up to him, beating up wrestlers, he sees Mitsuo climbing up a building, like a spider...

Wearing a ski mask and black clothes, Mitsuo is caught mid-robbery, and severely injures two cops on the way out. Jumping out of the eighteenth floor, he's confronted by Spider-Man, who webs him up and tries to unmask him. He settles for a promise never to do it again as the cops fire away.

Later, one of the cops has been blinded, and the other is at death's door. (Although the press attitude to Spider-Man has improved no end)

Yu thinks that he didn't want to make Yukiko suffer more, but would have thought twice about letting him go if he'd known of the cops' injuries. Still, he doesn't tell the police who's responsible.

The next night, Yukiko and Yu are on a date, and she tells him Mitsuo has promised her he's turning from a life of crime. He's happy, until he sees a display board that announces one of the injured cops has died. His mood isn't improved when he gets home and finds his costume and webshooters have been stolen.

The new "Spider-Man 2" goes on an environmental crusade, sealing up chimneys belching out smoke and industrial sewage drains, targeted against the companies that ruined his parents, and hanging protest banners. The public like the new Spider-Man, although the companies have pressed charges.

Later, Yu visits Mitsuo at his new place of work and tells him his sister's in love with Yu, but doesn't feel she's "good enough" for him, Yu's "cornered" into confessing he loves her back (he does, but didn't want to tell Mitsuo ). He tries to change the subject, obliquely referencing the new Spider-Man's crusade by mentioning what Yukiko told him about their parents, and Mitsuo violently admits he hates them, but claims he can't do anything.

Yu suits up as Spider-Man and goes to look for Mitsuo, fearing what he'll do.

Meanwhile, Dai Nippon attempt to honeytrap Mitsuo/SM with a bribe, using a suitcase full of money and a video camera. Mitsuo counters with his own audio recording of proceedings, and jumps out of the window, to be confronted by Yu/SM. Mitsuo manages to get him to back off by telling him Yukiko will commit suicide if she gets embarrassed.

Mitsuo releases the audio recording, and gets more popular at the expense of Dai Nippon. Going home, he takes his mask off to drink a beer, and finds Yukiko has discovered his base. She realises he killed the cop. As she's despairing, he tells her Yu is in love with her and would do anything for her. He also confesses he got his powers from a transfusion of Yu's blood.

She rejects him, telling her brother he's the lowest of the low, a user who drains people dry. Leaving in the rain, she runs into Yu, and begs him to kill Mitsuo if he loves her. When he hesistates, she snaps, deciding he doesn't love her because she's "a filthy woman" and goes away singing insanely.

Yu goes after Mitsuo, telling him he's never hated anyone more (I think, the scene with two identically-costumed Spider-Men is moderately confusing...). They fight, but it ends abruptly - just as Yu's about to be killed, Mitsuo's temporary powers burn out, leaving him a burnt-out wreck who falls off a building.

-FB
Spider-Man 2/Mitsuo Kitano
Kitano, Yukiko

Mitsuo forces Yukiko to become a prostitute, and acts as her pimp.
_________________________

As I said above, some fairly major characters (like the JJJ analogue and Aunt May analogue) don't get names unfortunately. And, again, due to the Mangaverse, I wouldn't call this anything ending in "MANGA-VERSE" - it would just be asking for confusion.

I've noted the skipped Japanese chapters as far as I could (the magazine only had month/year, not issue numbers as far as I can tell - alternatively, they seem to have had multiple Japanese collections that could probably be referenced for "issue numbers"), but it's inherently limited, hence the square brackets. I still think it's worth including them, even if they need to be [BRACKETED].

Oh, and one final note - technically, Japanese name order is SURNAME GIVENNAME. But the English translation reverses that to the western standard of GIVENNAME SURNAME, and I've just run with that.